One of the main limitations of rotorcraft aircraft is the flight speed limitation caused by the physics and mechanics of flight. These limitations have plagued the helicopter since its conception. Retreating blade stall, dissymmetry of lift, leading, lagging, flapping and coning are just some of the forces that limit the top speed of helicopters. For example, most helicopters are limited to air speeds of less than 200 miles an hour. The present invention, the Gerbino Flight System, allows fixed wing aircraft to be lifted vertically and then translate into forward flight to speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour, because retreating blade stall, and other problems, are non-existent in that the rotating blades are taken out of the airstream in a new and nonobvious way. Once the aircraft is airborne and moving at sufficient forward speed to maintain lift, the rotating blades are gradually retracted with forward propulsion provided by one of any number of systems used by fixed wing aircraft to drive the aircraft forward. An aircraft utilizing the invention would have sufficient lifting surfaces to enable it to remain airborne after the rotor blades are fully retracted.
An autogyro incorporating retracting blades is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,508, however, it does not include the features described and claimed herein, which enable the present invention to achieve true helicopter flight. U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,376 depicts lifting blades protruding from a circular planform wing, but again, it does not include components enabling helicopter flight, nor retractable lifting blades.